AG rebuffs bid to prosecute Myanmar leader

Attorney General Christian Porter has shot down a bid by Australian lawyers to prosecute Aung San Suu Kyi on crimes against humanity.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is hosting Myanmar's de facto leader in Sydney along with leaders from other Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries for a special summit.

An estimated 700,000 Rohingya people from Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state have poured across the border into Bangladesh refugee camps since last August following a military crackdown.

The atrocities included villages being burned, women being raped and babies murdered.

The Rohingya people are effectively stateless and are denied citizenship in Myanmar.

Ron Merkel QC and a group of international and human rights lawyers needed Mr Porter to give permission for private prosecution but that won't be forthcoming.

"Aung San Suu Kyi has complete immunity, including from being served with court documents because under customary international law, heads of state, heads of government and ministers of foreign affairs are immune from foreign criminal proceedings and are inviolable," a spokesman for Mr Porter told AAP.